Humperdinck: Hansel und Gretel 2008

As bright and colorful as penny candy, this visually arresting production of Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel und Gretel" puts a twist on the classic fairy tale upon which it's based by uprooting the action to modern times. Director Laurent Pelly's interpretation, which premiered at Glyndebourne in 2008, finds Hansel, Gretel and their family taking shelter in a cardboard box while the witch's stock of goodies lines the shelves of a supermarket.

Carmen - NNTT 2021

When a free-spirited woman is arrested, an impressionable soldier is charmed into letting her go. But having risked everything to be with her and lost, his hopes of happiness soon turn into a jealous rage. With equal parts danger and desire, Carmen is an intoxicating cocktail that never fails to excite the senses. French mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d'Oustrac plays the seductive heroine with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude who bears more than a passing resemblance to Amy Winehouse. Spanish director Àlex Ollé’s production is conducted by Kazushi Ono at the New National Theatre Tokyo.

Boris Godunov - NNT Tokyo 2023

Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Boris Godunov is capable of murder in pursuit of power. When Boris’s political opponents substitute a pretend descendant of the previous tsar, the so-called Pretender, to stage a coup d’état, Godunov, tormented by remorse, is certain that it is the reincarnation of his victim who, like an angel of vengeance, has come to take his life. Based on a play by Aleksandr Pushkin about the real-life Boris Godunov, the opera traces the life of the Russian Regent during the Time of Troubles in the late 16th century, from his coronation to his death. This sombre tragedy is about the cries of a nation, the scheming of those in power and the anguish of Boris himself. The music is richly modern, and filled with innovative harmonies based on Russian folk songs and traditional Russian Orthodox church music, and is considered the pinnacle of Russian opera.

Les clefs de l'orchestre de Jean-François Zygel - Le Boléro de Ravel 2007